Collapse of Turkish lira threatens to undermine EU bid

Associated Press

Published Sunday, February 25, 2001

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's growing financial and political crisis threatens to undermine the country's push to join the European Union and a U.S. strategy of showcasing Turkey as a Muslim country that achieved prosperity by joining the West.

On the streets of Turkey, angry citizens are calling for the resignation of the government once regarded as Turkey's hope for reforming the economy and cleaning up the country's tattered human rights record.

''Forget the country,'' an angry Mehmet Barlas wrote in the pro-Islamic Yeni Safak newspaper. ''You couldn't run a corner shop.''

In a sign of just how important Turkey is to Washington, President Bush called Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit to offer the United States' support during the crisis.

Turkey borders Iran and Iraq and a stable Turkey is crucial to the U.S. policy of containing both countries. Turkey hosts U.S. warplanes that patrol a no-fly zone over Iraq and has good relations with both Israel and Arab countries.

The United States has also pointed to Turkey as an example of a successful predominantly Muslim country that is integrating with the West. That is especially important in Central Asia, where the United States, Russia and Iran are competing for influence in countries that are mostly populated by people of Turkic descent.

Turkey has also held out hopes of becoming the first mostly Muslim member of the European Union, which has demanded economic reforms and a low, stable inflation rate.

''Thanks to your incompetence, our European Union candidacy has been postponed for at least 10 years,'' Barlas wrote of the political turmoil that also has highlighted divisions within the government.

It has also raised questions about the role of the military, which often dominates weak governments. The EU demands that politicians reduce the military's influence on government.

The crisis began Monday when President Ahmet Necdet Sezer accused Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit of not acting strongly enough to tackle corruption. A shaken Ecevit stormed out of the meeting. The dispute spooked investors and sent the stock market plummeting. That fall and the accompanying rise in interest rates led the government to lift controls on the Turkish lira, which sent the currency plummeting some 36 percent.